Act Like A Local

My Samoan dad raised us on old recordings of Hawai’ian comedians, like Rap Reiplinger, Don Ho and other Hawaiian artists. By the time I visited Hawai’i, I knew basic Hawai’ian Pidgin, and the proper ways and times to wear an ie lavalava, or “sarong” . I didn’t realize...

Life as a Samoan

Am I like a Samoan? Besides professional wrestling, I had never met or seen a Samoan person until I was in sixth grade. Seeing men like the Rock and Rikishi wrestler), or various other members of the Anoa’i Family, caused me to believe that all Samoans had larger than...

The People of the Sea

My oldest grandson is a mix of a lot of ethnicities–he is, on one half–Maori, Tongan, Hawaiian, Chinese, Samoan with traces of Fijian and on the other half a European mix from Norway to the Netherlands. His name reflects this mixture, influenced by his...